Physicist proposes manned mega-satellite to orbit Ceres

Physicist Pekka Janhunen of the Finnish Meteorological Institute has developed a new idea to colonize a place other than Earth – and it’s not the moon or Mars. Instead, Janhunen suggests in an article posted on the arXiv preprint server that humans populate a giant satellite that orbits Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.

Many space scientists have noted the difficulties and dangers of attempting to colonize the Moon or Mars – both have extremely hostile environments. So many people on the ground have been promoting the idea of ​​building a structure large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people somewhere in space. But that would present its own set of problems. Pay for the construction of such a gigantic project, for example, and protect the inhabitants from solar radiation – and what about gravity, and where would the structure reside? In his article, Janhunen suggests that Ceres would be a great place to put such a structure, which would make it a satellite. He notes that such an orbit would be close enough to the dwarf planet that a 636-mile-long space elevator could transport material from the surface to the satellite for construction and resupply – Ceres has more than enough nitrogen, of water and carbon dioxide to support such an endeavor.

Janhunen also has plans for the parabola-shaped satellite – he imagines it to be over a mile long and with thousands of interconnected cylindrical structures on its surface to house humans, and also to provide space for other necessities such as agriculture and recreation areas. He also imagines a pair of giant mirrors to harness the sun’s energy on either side of the satellite, giving the overall structure a clam-like shape. He also plans to start with a population of 50,000 people. And he also thinks the majority of the satellite could be built from material on the surface of Ceres. Gravity, he notes, could be simulated by simply spinning the satellite at the right speed.

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